The SBCC Theatre Group’s summer musical brings romance and shenanigans to the high seas in Anything Goes. The recipe for this classic musical comedy, says actor Tiffany Story (playing Erma), is “screwball comedy, Cole Porter’s most popular songs, and high-energy dance numbers.” First produced in 1934, the original concept was by PG Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, but Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were hired to revise the script before it went into production. Timothy Crouse and John Weidman updated the show’s book into a more modern narrative structure in the 1980s, yet Anything Goes maintains its roots in vaudeville-style entertainment.
“It’s carrying forward the traditions of vaudeville, variety entertainment, and physical comedy,” says Austin Escamilla, who plays ineffectual gangster Moonface Martin. Escamilla has taken character inspiration from the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, masters of the vaudevillian timing, physicality, and audience connection. “Getting in touch with the era,” he says, “has been … about understanding those performers who knew how to walk onstage and instantly win over an audience. We’re leaning into the idea that Moonface is an aging vaudeville performer who somehow stumbled his way into being a gangster.” Moonface and Erma are partners in crime and are always on the grift. Story says Erma is “here for a good time, not a long time. She loves the fellas and is thrilled to be stuck on a ship full of them.”
With a massive cast of 32 dancing, singing performers, Anything Goes promises extravaganza. “Coordinating 32 performers onstage throughout the show to look effortless and natural is no easy feat,” says Story, and credits director Katie Laris and choreographer Michele Spears for guiding the traffic.
See Anything Goes at the Garvin Theatre July 8-25 and enjoy the razzle-dazzle of classic Broadway. “I get to dance and sing and flirt with a bunch of sailors,” says Story. “What could be better than that!?”
See theatregroupsbcc.com/current-season/anything-goes.
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